Twin Peaks Review by John Keegan

Twin Peaks 3.09: The Return: Part IX

Written By:Mark Frost and David Lynch

Directed By:David Lynch

After one of the most mind-bending episodes of
the entire series to date, it seems almost disappointing that we would receive an
installment that feels relatively pedestrian.
Or, at least, in some respects, a bit shattershot and unfocused. Considering that this is the mid-point of the
third season, it feels like there is still a lot that needs to come together,
even if there were a lot of dots being connected in this episode.

Major Briggs and his fate is at the center of
much of the material, which also manages to focus a surprising amount of
attention on Bobby and his father’s faith in his wayward son. It’s a great payoff to some little chestnuts
from the original two seasons, where Major Briggs mentioned having a vision of
his son’s bright future. It also
introduces another layer of weirdness as the Major’s clues to the fate of Agent
Cooper are revealed, and they are nothing if not mysterious.

Meanwhile, the pieces just seem to move around
the chessboard methodically. Dark Cooper
is out of prison and still trying to take out Dougie/Good Cooper, and we get
more confirmation that a lot of the action in Vegas is directly related to Dark
Cooper’s monitoring (and planned execution) of Dougie all along. Which is fine, except we already knew most of
that, and it’s just watching the characters work their way towards conclusions
we already know.

The one interesting wrinkle, perhaps, is the
mysterious message that Dark Cooper sends Diane. Setting aside the hilarity of Dark Cooper
using a very old and bright pink flip phone to send said message, it adds a
layer of doubt to everything regarding Diane.
Is it Dark Cooper having a little sadistic fun with Diane, after her
visit? Or is there something more
happening there, signaling a shocking collusion? I suspect the former, but it would be classic
Twin Peaks for Diane to be putting on
a front all this time.

The biggest revelation, besides the message
that Major Briggs sent to his son, is that Bill Hastings (last seen several
episodes ago) turns out to have been writing a blog with murder victim Ruth
about parallel dimensions and similar theories.
They were convinced that they could enter the “zone” and when they did,
echoing the “a certain time and a certain place” language that the Log Lady
invoked right from the start, they met Major Briggs. It all connects to the larger narrative (and
justifies the time spent on it earlier in the season), but it also feels like
it comes out of left field, and somehow manages to feel more intrusive than the
surrealism of “Part VIII”.

At other times the direction is almost
intentionally self-conscious. Witness,
for example, the endless repetition of similar scenes with the brotherly
detective trio. Or, even more telling,
the scene where Gordon and Diane share a cigarette and Agent Preston’s usual
provocative and overtly sexual posing degrades into uncomfortable
shifting. It may confirm that Preston is
intentionally playing up her sultry antics for effect, but that doesn’t exactly
speak well to her as a character. She
wouldn’t be the first character in Twin
Peaks to use her sexuality as a weapon to disarm others (see Audrey Horne),
but it somehow feels out of place with Preston.

Perhaps all of this would have been easier to
digest if there was more than the slightest hint that the true Dale Cooper was
going to emerge soon. If we accept that
the entire third season is all about Cooper’s restoration and returning Killer
Bob/Dark Cooper to his proper place in the Black Lodge, and that the narrative
was built as one long film, then we are deep into the second act. We might not really see resolution coming
until episodes 12-13, at the earliest.
The next few episodes really need to step up the pace and the subplots to
keep the season from losing momentum entirely.

Our Grade:

C+

The Good:

It’s good to see more callbacks to moments from the first two seasons of the series

The Bad:

This episode felt scattershot and unfocused, especially towards the end

John Keegan aka "criticalmyth", is one of the hosts of the "Critical Myth" podcast heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @criticalmyth

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